1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for reducing a load on a computer and efficiently managing a print job and a printing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
From Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290623, a distributed printing technology for realizing high speed printing with a plurality of printers by distributing print jobs on a network is known. According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290623, a job issuer, such as a personal computer, collects statuses of the distributed print jobs, and the job issuer manages the statuses of the print jobs in parallel.
However, for example, there is a case in which a large number of print jobs are input to a large number of printing devices at locations mutually connected by a network in various parts of a country. Although several printing devices can be monitored in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290623, in the case of monitoring, for example, several hundred printing devices, it is not realistic to use the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290623 for monitoring. Monitoring of several hundred printing devices causes a very large processing load, or significantly increases the cost required for a computer used for monitoring.